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Saturday, 29 August 2015

New Book Reading Challenge - Part 1

I love reading, but like many self respecting nerds, I constantly re-read the same books over and over again; they're like old friends, arms open wide to comfort me. Last year I made it a challenge to read twelve 'new' books and actually read fifteen, so this year my challenge is twenty-five. I'm now half way through so I'm going to do a run down.

1. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
I started reading this last year and found it very difficult to get into. Then I saw the movie and it spurred me on to finish it. I still found it hard to read though.

2. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The movie of this is one of my favourites - as a child, my Dad worked abroad a lot, and on one of his plane journeys to some far off land, they played this movie. He rung and told us to go and see it. So now it always reminds me of my Daddy! I did enjoy the book, although it does vary from the movie (or rather, the movie varies from the book) and read it pretty quickly!

3. Wild by Cheryl Strayed
The whole premise of this really speaks to me - having the guts to go and do something incredible. I now spend my days idly wondering if I could walk from John O'Groats to Lands End. Really enjoyed this book!

4. Veronica Mars: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham
I am a big Veronica Mars fan (I was a Kickstarter backer too) and really enjoyed this book. I could just hear in my head how each character would say their lines. I zipped through this in a couple of days. I recommend this, especially if you were a fan of the show.

5. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
I'm not going to lie, this book took me a loooong time to finish. Once you get over the ridiculousness of falling through time (it says a lot when I find something ridiculous) it is a good, albeit lengthy and character heavy, read. It'll be a while before I can face reading the sequels though.

6. Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah
One of my targets was reading books I wouldn't normally go for, and I normally avoid chick lit type books. I'm glad I read it, but it's reminded me what I enjoy. I just felt the whole storyline was quite predictable... I like lots of plot twists.

7. Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
I enjoyed this book. I love reading historical books (Fatherland is one of my favs). This was definitely the best book in the trilogy and made me really glad I have never had to live through terror and uncertainty.

8. The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith
I did find this enjoyable and read it fairly quickly, but a few parts did lose my interest for a while.

9. Agent 6 by Tom Rob Smith
The worst book in the trilogy. Maybe it was because time was moving on and it was a period of history and a part of the world I don't really know much about. Still glad I read it to complete the trilogy, and I enjoyed the beginning and the end. Just not most of the rest of it.

10. I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
Easily the best book I've read this year. It literally had everything I look for in a book. Murder, intrigue, torture, one or two guessable plot twists that make you feel smart... I've already pre-ordered Hayes' next book.

11. The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
After visiting the War Tunnels during my trip to Jersey I was inspired to read more WWII fiction and my friend recommended this to me as she'd really enjoyed it. I found the main character so annoying it did kind of impact my enjoyment, but the part set during the war was really well done.

12. The Martian by Andy Weir
Space terrifies me. But I liked this book! It's pretty easy to read, as long as you don't pay too much attention to all the engineering and scientific stuff (I mean, why complicate your life). And my heart was beating SO HARD at the end.

13. The Woodcutter by Kate Danley
I'm still reading this one (which is why this is a halfway through list) but it is weird.
I don't know how much hope to hold out that I'll actually make twenty-five by the end of the year... but Outlander took me a long time to read, so that slowed me down. I've got A LOT of books downloaded/on the bookcase, many of which I have actually started so I guess technically I am over halfway.